Achieve painterly effects with lifelike brush strokes in Photoshop Extended and with expressive vector-painting tools in Illustrator, or easily create eye-catching 3D artwork with new Repousse in Photoshop CS5 Extended.

Work faster and more efficiently using more precise image selection tools in Photoshop Extended, variable-width strokes in Illustrator, and intuitive object selection features in Adobe InDesign.

Use new Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 to transform Photoshop and Illustrator artwork into high-quality interactive content and navigation components for web pages and user interfaces without writing code.

CS Live online services link your desktop design software to the Internet to boost efficiency in activities that support day-to-day design and production. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time.

Product Description

Amazon.ca Product Description

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium software gives you powerful new creative tools for crafting artwork that stands out. Finish work faster with numerous enhancements to the tools you use every day. And with new Adobe Flash Catalyst, you can extend the reach of your designs to new media without writing code.

Upgrade from CS2/CS3 to Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Standard

Customers who have a license for Creative Suite Design Premium CS2 or CS3 are eligible for upgrade pricing.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium combines:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Adobe InDesign CS5

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

Adobe Flash Professional CS5

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5

Adobe Fireworks CS5

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Additional components:

Adobe Bridge CS5

Adobe Device Central CS5

Integration with new Adobe CS Live online services

Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

Explore new creative possibilities Powerful new creative tools in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator enable you to craft artwork that stands out in a wide range of media.

Realistic painting effects in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended Easily paint with lifelike brush strokes to create beautiful, expressive images. Blend a photo's colors; use bristle properties such as shape, length, and stiffness; or define multiple colors on a single brush and blend them into the underlying colors on your canvas.

Fluid vector painting with Adobe Illustrator CS5 Combine the expressiveness of painting with the editability and scalability of vectors. Paint freely with vectors that resemble real-world brush strokes, controlling paint opacity and bristle characteristics such as shape, length, and stiffness.

Easy 3D extrusions with Adobe Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended Create 3D logos and artwork from any text layer, selection, or layer mask. Twist, rotate, extrude, bevel, and inflate these designs, and then apply materials such as chrome, mud, and grass to achieve different looks.

Express your ideas faster Design Premium includes dozens of features designed to reduce the number of steps required to complete common tasks. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver--the tools you use every day--offer numerous enhancements to help you make fast work of your next project.

Truer edge selection technology in Photoshop CS5 Extended Produce highly accurate masks and make selections faster and more easily than ever before with powerful new controls for refining selection edges in Photoshop CS5. Even the trickiest image elements, such as hair and foliage, can be masked quickly and accurately to produce realistic composite images.

Beautiful strokes with Illustrator CS5 Avoid time-consuming workarounds by using convenient width handles to adjust stroke width interactively. Precisely size and position arrowheads, and align dashes symmetrically. Control stretch at any point when scaling art brushes on a path, and see how strokes join intelligently at corners.

Multiple page sizes in a single InDesign file Streamline design and production for projects with multiple pages sizes, such as brand identity, marketing collateral, and complex magazine folds. Include different page sizes in a single document and intelligently apply the same master page to different-sized layouts.

More efficient CSS-based designs with CSS Inspection in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Easily view the box model properties of an element, quickly make adjustments in the CSS panel, and see the results rendered in real time.

Brand new in CS5 Design Premium, Flash Catalyst CS5 equips you to design interactive content using intuitive tools that leverage skills you already have--and without writing code. Click to enlarge.

Convenient asset handling with Adobe Mini Bridge Access all your creative assets within the context of what you're working on. Use a customizable panel in Photoshop CS5 Extended and InDesign CS5 to sort and filter files, and then drag them directly into your document.

Interactive content creation without writing code using new Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Start with artwork created in Photoshop or Illustrator and use Flash Catalyst to transform it into high-quality interactive content for web pages, user interfaces, and applications. Flash Catalyst lets you define buttons, scroll bars, sliders, page transitions, video players, and more--without touching a line of code.

Dynamic digital document creation with InDesign CS5 Add attention-grabbing interactivity, animation, movies, and sound to your digital documents and presentations. Use enhanced tools, motion presets for easy animation, and support for importing FLV and MP3 audio files. Export to the SWF file format for playback in

Adobe Flash Player software. Enhanced eBook document design with InDesign CS5--Create compelling eBooks with enhanced support for the EPUB file format. Author eBooks that can be read on a variety of devices such as the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, and mobile phones or on personal computers using Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. Enjoy more consistent text and image placement, more accurate translation of page breaks, and support for text and table formatting.

Superior typography in Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Make sure your typography looks as good onscreen as in print--preserve high-quality typography when handing off layouts from InDesign to Flash Professional. A new text engine in Flash Professional supports text styling, text layout control, multiple columns, and more.

Simplified mobile content design with Adobe Fireworks CS5 and Adobe Device Central CS5 Easily experiment with designing for mobile devices. Use Device Central and Fireworks to quickly set up a project with the correct specifications, design visually in Fireworks, preview your design in Device Central, and then hand off your prototype for development in Flash Professional or Dreamweaver.

Maximize design time by streamlining critical nondesign tasks New in CS5 Design Premium, Adobe CS Live online services integrate with and extend the capabilities of CS5 components. They link your desktop design software to the Internet to boost efficiencies in activities that support day-to-day design and production. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Streamlined reviews through integration with Adobe CS Review Maximize your design time by streamlining review processes with CS Review, one of the CS Live online services. Initiate shared reviews from within Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Invite colleagues and clients to comment with easy-to-use annotation tools, and then view their comments in the context of your design. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Live online meetings with Adobe ConnectNow Choose File > Share My Screen from your design software to initiate a web conferencing session in which you can quickly share ideas and discuss details of a project with others--all online. A feature of Acrobat.com, one of the CS Live online services, ConnectNow is accessible from your web browser. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Web page preview through integration with Adobe BrowserLab Through integration with Browserlab, a CS Live online service efficiently previews web pages on multiple browsers and operating systems. Save time and money by eliminating the need to buy costly testing hardware, install multiple browsers, and maintain testing labs. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Adobe Illustrator CS5--Explore new paths with the essential vector tool

Create distinctive designs for any project. Used by creative professionals worldwide, Adobe Illustrator CS5 software provides precision and power. Paint expressively with vectors, draw in perspective, and explore designing for interactivity. Move easily between Illustrator, other Adobe products, and Adobe CS Live online services. Get the job done efficiently but beautifully, moving quickly from multiple ideas to multiple outputs with complete control and delivering exactly what you had in mind.

Work smoothly and efficiently Speed up your workflow with innovations that encourage efficiency. Get the job done with purpose and agility using shortcuts and time-savers to take multiple ideas to multiple outputs.

Adobe InDesign CS5--Design professional layouts for print and digital publishing

Adobe InDesign CS5 software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Bring documents and presentations to life with interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Leading industry tools, and productivity enhancements make page layout simpler and faster. Access Adobe CS Live online services* from within InDesign to streamline critical review processes.

Streamline review processes Build powerful documents as a team. New integrated tools and the availability of efficient online services make review processes more efficient, whether your clients and colleagues are across the hall or around the world.

Do more in less time Create, edit, and publish documents faster. A wealth of new productivity features help make page layout simpler, easier, and speedier.

Designers who love fine typography will be thrilled by extensive type controls in Flash Professional CS5. Click to enlarge.

Integration between Fireworks CS5 and Device Central CS5 means you can begin a Fireworks project using the exact specifications of a target mobile device, then preview in Device Central before handing it off to a developer. Click to enlarge.

Adobe BrowserLab is a fast, flexible, and convenient way to make sure your web designs look exactly the way you intend them to look, no matter what browser, computer, and operating system is used to view them. Click to enlarge.

Adobe InDesign CS5 software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Click to enlarge.

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 software is an approachable new interaction design tool. Use it to transform Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks artwork into expressive interfaces and fully interactive content without writing code, and publish as SWF or Adobe AIR files. Collaborate with developers who can open your project files with Adobe Flash Builder software to extend functionality, and leverage the reach and consistency of the Adobe Flash Platform.

Leverage the power of the Adobe Flash Platform to create interactive projects Rapidly create expressive interfaces and interactive content to your exacting design standards. Deliver your creative vision with the reach and consistency of the Adobe Flash Platform.

Speed the design and development process Use familiar design applications to easily create and edit artwork. Developers can open Flash Catalyst projects directly in Adobe Flash Builder software, preserving design fidelity and interactions defined by the designer.

Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software is the industry-leading environment for interactive authoring and delivery of immersive experiences that are presented consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution. Design expressive content with professional typography and pixel-precise drawing tools, write code precisely and efficiently with code completion and customizable code snippets, and deliver superior-quality video to audiences practically everywhere.

Design with expression Communicate your creative vision without sacrifice and set the bar for interactive design with typographic precision, layout fidelity, and expressive motion-editing capabilities.

Deliver in fewer steps and in more places Save time and reduce the number of required steps when moving content from design, to development, and ultimately to delivery. Distribute consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software empowers designers and developers to build standards-based websites with confidence. Work visually or directly in code, develop with your existing content management system like WordPress, Joomla!, or Drupal, and design productively with CSS inspection tools. Simplify advanced website development with integrated support for Subversion software and custom PHP code hinting. Get fast and accurate browser-compatibility testing and test dynamic content thanks to integration with Adobe BrowserLab, a new Adobe CS Live online service.

Design websites more productively Inspect, track, and preview web designs with powerful CSS diagnostics and functions. Improve your layouts and designs, and reduce the need for manual tweaking in the CSS code.

Extend Dreamweaver through integration with CS Live online services Some of the new CS Live online services integrate with Dreamweaver, such as fast and accurate browser-compatibility testing with Adobe BrowserLab. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Adobe Fireworks CS5--Rapidly prototype and design for the web

Create expressive screen graphics for virtually any device rapidly with Adobe Fireworks CS5 software. Design websites, user interfaces, or rich media applications using both vector and bitmap tools. Import assets from Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator software and export to HTML and CSS, Adobe Flash Catalyst software, or the Adobe AIR runtime. Optimize final imagery with the industry's leading screen graphics software.

Combine the power of vector and bitmap tools Design with vector and bitmap tools together to achieve optimal imagery quickly. Enjoy pixel precision that maps to your resolution requirements, using graphics tools designed for screen-based output.

Produce better screen graphics, faster Create rich, interactive screen graphics with fewer steps. Create and name slices efficiently, and then deliver superior-quality graphics optimized for the web and a wide range of devices.

Collaborate and share with virtually anyone, anywhere Gain the input you need--in real time--through interactive, shared document reviews that help participants see and build on each other's comments.

Adobe Creative Suite 5

With powerful new creative tools, enhanced performance and workflows, and the ability to integrate with timesaving new Adobe CS Live online services, Adobe Creative Suite 5 software provides the edge you need to create rich content for virtually any media--print, web, interactive, video, audio, and mobile. Whether you need to produce printed pages efficiently or design and distribute engaging content online, on film, on air, and on device, you'll find the right combination of Adobe tools to increase your productivity and keep pace with your creative vision.

From Amazon.ca

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium software gives you powerful new creative tools for crafting artwork that stands out. Finish work faster with numerous enhancements to the tools you use every day. And with new Adobe Flash Catalyst, you can extend the reach of your designs to new media without writing code.

Upgrade from CS2/CS3 to Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

Customers who have a license for Creative Suite Design Premium CS2 or CS3 are eligible for upgrade pricing.

Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium combines:

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended

Adobe Illustrator CS5

Adobe InDesign CS5

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5

Adobe Flash Professional CS5

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5

Adobe Fireworks CS5

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro

Additional components:

Adobe Bridge CS5

Adobe Device Central CS5

Integration with new Adobe CS Live online services

Top reasons to upgrade to Adobe Creative Suite 5 Design Premium

Explore new creative possibilities Powerful new creative tools in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator enable you to craft artwork that stands out in a wide range of media.

Realistic painting effects in Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended Easily paint with lifelike brush strokes to create beautiful, expressive images. Blend a photo's colors; use bristle properties such as shape, length, and stiffness; or define multiple colors on a single brush and blend them into the underlying colors on your canvas.

Fluid vector painting with Adobe Illustrator CS5 Combine the expressiveness of painting with the editability and scalability of vectors. Paint freely with vectors that resemble real-world brush strokes, controlling paint opacity and bristle characteristics such as shape, length, and stiffness.

Easy 3D extrusions with Adobe Repoussé in Photoshop CS5 Extended Create 3D logos and artwork from any text layer, selection, or layer mask. Twist, rotate, extrude, bevel, and inflate these designs, and then apply materials such as chrome, mud, and grass to achieve different looks.

Express your ideas faster Design Premium includes dozens of features designed to reduce the number of steps required to complete common tasks. Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and Dreamweaver--the tools you use every day--offer numerous enhancements to help you make fast work of your next project.

Truer edge selection technology in Photoshop CS5 Extended Produce highly accurate masks and make selections faster and more easily than ever before with powerful new controls for refining selection edges in Photoshop CS5. Even the trickiest image elements, such as hair and foliage, can be masked quickly and accurately to produce realistic composite images.

Beautiful strokes with Illustrator CS5 Avoid time-consuming workarounds by using convenient width handles to adjust stroke width interactively. Precisely size and position arrowheads, and align dashes symmetrically. Control stretch at any point when scaling art brushes on a path, and see how strokes join intelligently at corners.

Multiple page sizes in a single InDesign file Streamline design and production for projects with multiple pages sizes, such as brand identity, marketing collateral, and complex magazine folds. Include different page sizes in a single document and intelligently apply the same master page to different-sized layouts.

More efficient CSS-based designs with CSS Inspection in Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Easily view the box model properties of an element, quickly make adjustments in the CSS panel, and see the results rendered in real time.

Brand new in CS5 Design Premium, Flash Catalyst CS5 equips you to design interactive content using intuitive tools that leverage skills you already have--and without writing code. Click to enlarge.

Convenient asset handling with Adobe Mini Bridge Access all your creative assets within the context of what you're working on. Use a customizable panel in Photoshop CS5 Extended and InDesign CS5 to sort and filter files, and then drag them directly into your document.

Interactive content creation without writing code using new Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 Start with artwork created in Photoshop or Illustrator and use Flash Catalyst to transform it into high-quality interactive content for web pages, user interfaces, and applications. Flash Catalyst lets you define buttons, scroll bars, sliders, page transitions, video players, and more--without touching a line of code.

Dynamic digital document creation with InDesign CS5 Add attention-grabbing interactivity, animation, movies, and sound to your digital documents and presentations. Use enhanced tools, motion presets for easy animation, and support for importing FLV and MP3 audio files. Export to the SWF file format for playback in

Adobe Flash Player software. Enhanced eBook document design with InDesign CS5--Create compelling eBooks with enhanced support for the EPUB file format. Author eBooks that can be read on a variety of devices such as the Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook, and mobile phones or on personal computers using Microsoft Windows or Mac OS. Enjoy more consistent text and image placement, more accurate translation of page breaks, and support for text and table formatting.

Superior typography in Adobe Flash Professional CS5 Make sure your typography looks as good onscreen as in print--preserve high-quality typography when handing off layouts from InDesign to Flash Professional. A new text engine in Flash Professional supports text styling, text layout control, multiple columns, and more.

Simplified mobile content design with Adobe Fireworks CS5 and Adobe Device Central CS5 Easily experiment with designing for mobile devices. Use Device Central and Fireworks to quickly set up a project with the correct specifications, design visually in Fireworks, preview your design in Device Central, and then hand off your prototype for development in Flash Professional or Dreamweaver.

Maximize design time by streamlining critical nondesign tasks New in CS5 Design Premium, Adobe CS Live online services integrate with and extend the capabilities of CS5 components. They link your desktop design software to the Internet to boost efficiencies in activities that support day-to-day design and production. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Streamlined reviews through integration with Adobe CS Review Maximize your design time by streamlining review processes with CS Review, one of the CS Live online services. Initiate shared reviews from within Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. Invite colleagues and clients to comment with easy-to-use annotation tools, and then view their comments in the context of your design. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Live online meetings with Adobe ConnectNow Choose File > Share My Screen from your design software to initiate a web conferencing session in which you can quickly share ideas and discuss details of a project with others--all online. A feature of Acrobat.com, one of the CS Live online services, ConnectNow is accessible from your web browser. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Web page preview through integration with Adobe BrowserLab Through integration with Browserlab, a CS Live online service efficiently previews web pages on multiple browsers and operating systems. Save time and money by eliminating the need to buy costly testing hardware, install multiple browsers, and maintain testing labs. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Adobe Illustrator CS5--Explore new paths with the essential vector tool

Create distinctive designs for any project. Used by creative professionals worldwide, Adobe Illustrator CS5 software provides precision and power. Paint expressively with vectors, draw in perspective, and explore designing for interactivity. Move easily between Illustrator, other Adobe products, and Adobe CS Live online services. Get the job done efficiently but beautifully, moving quickly from multiple ideas to multiple outputs with complete control and delivering exactly what you had in mind.

Work smoothly and efficiently Speed up your workflow with innovations that encourage efficiency. Get the job done with purpose and agility using shortcuts and time-savers to take multiple ideas to multiple outputs.

Adobe InDesign CS5--Design professional layouts for print and digital publishing

Adobe InDesign CS5 software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Bring documents and presentations to life with interactivity, animation, sound, and video. Leading industry tools, and productivity enhancements make page layout simpler and faster. Access Adobe CS Live online services* from within InDesign to streamline critical review processes.

Streamline review processes Build powerful documents as a team. New integrated tools and the availability of efficient online services make review processes more efficient, whether your clients and colleagues are across the hall or around the world.

Do more in less time Create, edit, and publish documents faster. A wealth of new productivity features help make page layout simpler, easier, and speedier.

Designers who love fine typography will be thrilled by extensive type controls in Flash Professional CS5. Click to enlarge.

Integration between Fireworks CS5 and Device Central CS5 means you can begin a Fireworks project using the exact specifications of a target mobile device, then preview in Device Central before handing it off to a developer. Click to enlarge.

Adobe BrowserLab is a fast, flexible, and convenient way to make sure your web designs look exactly the way you intend them to look, no matter what browser, computer, and operating system is used to view them. Click to enlarge.

Adobe InDesign CS5 software provides precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices. Click to enlarge.

Adobe Flash Catalyst CS5 software is an approachable new interaction design tool. Use it to transform Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and Fireworks artwork into expressive interfaces and fully interactive content without writing code, and publish as SWF or Adobe AIR files. Collaborate with developers who can open your project files with Adobe Flash Builder software to extend functionality, and leverage the reach and consistency of the Adobe Flash Platform.

Leverage the power of the Adobe Flash Platform to create interactive projects Rapidly create expressive interfaces and interactive content to your exacting design standards. Deliver your creative vision with the reach and consistency of the Adobe Flash Platform.

Speed the design and development process Use familiar design applications to easily create and edit artwork. Developers can open Flash Catalyst projects directly in Adobe Flash Builder software, preserving design fidelity and interactions defined by the designer.

Adobe Flash Professional CS5 software is the industry-leading environment for interactive authoring and delivery of immersive experiences that are presented consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution. Design expressive content with professional typography and pixel-precise drawing tools, write code precisely and efficiently with code completion and customizable code snippets, and deliver superior-quality video to audiences practically everywhere.

Design with expression Communicate your creative vision without sacrifice and set the bar for interactive design with typographic precision, layout fidelity, and expressive motion-editing capabilities.

Deliver in fewer steps and in more places Save time and reduce the number of required steps when moving content from design, to development, and ultimately to delivery. Distribute consistently across personal computers, mobile devices, and screens of virtually any size and resolution.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 software empowers designers and developers to build standards-based websites with confidence. Work visually or directly in code, develop with your existing content management system like WordPress, Joomla!, or Drupal, and design productively with CSS inspection tools. Simplify advanced website development with integrated support for Subversion software and custom PHP code hinting. Get fast and accurate browser-compatibility testing and test dynamic content thanks to integration with Adobe BrowserLab, a new Adobe CS Live online service.

Design websites more productively Inspect, track, and preview web designs with powerful CSS diagnostics and functions. Improve your layouts and designs, and reduce the need for manual tweaking in the CSS code.

Extend Dreamweaver through integration with CS Live online services Some of the new CS Live online services integrate with Dreamweaver, such as fast and accurate browser-compatibility testing with Adobe BrowserLab. CS Live online services are complimentary for a limited time--visit www.adobe.com/go/cslive for details.

Adobe Fireworks CS5--Rapidly prototype and design for the web

Create expressive screen graphics for virtually any device rapidly with Adobe Fireworks CS5 software. Design websites, user interfaces, or rich media applications using both vector and bitmap tools. Import assets from Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator software and export to HTML and CSS, Adobe Flash Catalyst software, or the Adobe AIR runtime. Optimize final imagery with the industry's leading screen graphics software.

Combine the power of vector and bitmap tools Design with vector and bitmap tools together to achieve optimal imagery quickly. Enjoy pixel precision that maps to your resolution requirements, using graphics tools designed for screen-based output.

Produce better screen graphics, faster Create rich, interactive screen graphics with fewer steps. Create and name slices efficiently, and then deliver superior-quality graphics optimized for the web and a wide range of devices.

Collaborate and share with virtually anyone, anywhere Gain the input you need--in real time--through interactive, shared document reviews that help participants see and build on each other's comments.

Adobe Creative Suite 5

With powerful new creative tools, enhanced performance and workflows, and the ability to integrate with timesaving new Adobe CS Live online services, Adobe Creative Suite 5 software provides the edge you need to create rich content for virtually any media--print, web, interactive, video, audio, and mobile. Whether you need to produce printed pages efficiently or design and distribute engaging content online, on film, on air, and on device, you'll find the right combination of Adobe tools to increase your productivity and keep pace with your creative vision.

Most helpful customer reviews

I recently upgraded from CS3 to CS5 for just under $1000. Overall, I am not impressed and get the distinct impression that Adobe is pushing through these new versions purely as a cash grab. While there are some improvements in AI, PS and InDesign the newer versions of Flash and Dreamweaver seem to have gone backwards. The interface and tools are more cumbersome and default actions are just simply annoying. I have reverted to CS3 for these 2 programs. Summary... the price is exorbitant compared to what you actually get.

If you are design professional and you use CS3 or an older version, I highly recommend this upgrade; the advances in both CS4 and CS5, rolled into this CS5 package, are well worth the money if you make your living using Adobe software. However, it is well worth your time to explore all the new features; it always amazes me how many design professionals use only the most elementary features of the software, and do not really use even those to their potential. If you are a hobbyist or home user, without design training and with only basic design needs, any of the Adobe applications are probably overkill.

If you already have CS4, you should explore Adobe's website which describes the new features in detail, and decide for yourself if they are worth the upgrade price. For me, even a CS4 to CS5 upgrade is worthwhile; however, I would readily admit that for many basic to moderate users, the improvements would not justify the expense.

You will get the most bang using this software with OS X 10.6 on a somewhat newer machine, and I'd highly recommend at least 6GB RAM; 8GB or more wouldn't hurt.

If you don't need the 3D features or other advanced scientific features in Photoshop, etc., you should consider the Design Standard version instead.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

Finally Upgraded!Aug. 13 2010

By
Wil from Houston
- Published on Amazon.com

Platform for Display: Mac Disc
Verified Purchase

I finally upgraded from CS2. Everything looks different but I'm excited to learn the new features. Two things concerned me about upgrading to CS5. One, I had CS2 Student Edition and didn't know if it was upgradable. It was! Second concern was the fact that I was purchasing from Amazon and not Adobe directly. But it was $50 cheaper and it's the exact same thing so I would buy software from Amazon directly again.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful

Getting out of dateNov. 6 2010

By
M. Young
- Published on Amazon.com

Platform for Display: Mac Disc
Verified Purchase

The interfaces have still not been standardized across the suite, Illustrator gradients are still clunky. Acrobat is super slow and un-intuitive, but Photoshop loads really quick. Adobe seems to have stopped innovating around CS1 and is just collecting money through forced upgrades (CS3 would crash on launch in snow leopard so I had to upgrade) Will not be buying another suite until they go through and clean up this mess.

CS 5 is amazing. Amazon upgrad price was a great deal!Jan. 15 2011

By
Mary Miller
- Published on Amazon.com

Platform for Display: Mac Disc
Verified Purchase

CS5 is was a great upgrade. CS4 was a bit of a disappointment to me on several levels and CS5 has cleared up nearly every issue I disliked. I like having the box with the upgrade so I chose to purchase here instead of downloading from Apple. I even upgraded the shipping to get it sooner and still paid less than getting it at Apple.